6 REGULATION OF AUDIOVISUAL
MEDIA SERVICES
(27133)
15983/05
COM(05) 646
+ ADD 1
+ ADD 2
| Draft Directive amending Council Directive 89/552/EEC on the coordination
of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in
Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities
Impact assessment of the draft Directive
Statistical annex
|
| Legal base | Articles 47(2) and 55 EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Document originated | 13 December 2005
|
| Deposited in Parliament |
5 January 2006 |
| Department | Culture, Media and Sport
|
| Basis of consideration |
EM of 19 January 2006 |
| Previous Committee Report |
None |
| To be discussed in Council
| No date set |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
|
Background
6.1 Scheduled television broadcasts can be received by analogue
and digital televisions (terrestrial, satellite and cable) and
the Internet. They are regulated by the 1989 Television without
Frontiers Directive (TVWF).[25]
6.2 The TVWF requires every Member State to ensure
that all scheduled television broadcasts by broadcasters within
its jurisdiction comply with the rules contained in the Directive
(or with its own stricter rules) about protection of public access
to broadcasts about events of major importance; freedom for broadcasts
transmitted in one Member State to be received in others; the
proportion of broadcasts of European origin (quotas); the duration
and content of advertising and teleshopping; the protection of
minors; the prohibition of incitement to hatred on grounds of
race, sex, religion or nationality; and rights of reply.
6.3 Article 47(2) of the Treaty establishing the
European Community (the EC Treaty) authorises the Council to issue
Directives for the coordination of Member States' laws on "the
taking-up and pursuit of activities as self-employed persons"
by the nationals of one Member State in the territory of another
Member State. Article 55 of the EC Treaty applies Articles 45
to 48 to the matters covered in Chapter 3 (Services) of the Treaty.
Those Articles are concerned with the establishment of the nationals
and companies of one Member State in the territory of another
State.
The document
6.4 The Commission distinguishes between:
- linear services — scheduled
broadcasts, the order of which the viewer cannot change; and
- non-linear services —
audiovisual programmes available to the viewer on-demand (not
scheduled by the broadcaster).
6.5 At present, linear services are regulated by
the TVWF, while non-linear services are regulated by the e-Commerce
Directive[26] and are
not subject to the same requirements about, for example, the protection
of minors.
6.6 After consulting the industry, consumer groups
and Member States, the Commission has proposed this draft Directive
with the aim of:
- making all audiovisual media
services (linear and non-linear) subject to the same minimum requirements;
and
- modernising and simplifying the regulatory framework
for linear services.
The Commission says that the proposal is part of
its commitment to better regulation.
6.7 The main provisions of the draft Directive would:
- change the name of the 1989
Directive from the TVWF to "the Audiovisual Media Services
Directive";
- prohibit a Member States from restricting access
to a non-linear service transmitted from another Member State;
- require Member States to ensure that non-linear
service providers, as well as linear providers, comply with the
rules in a new version of Article 3(b) to (h) of the TVWF; and
- simplify the rules applying to advertising and
teleshopping in linear broadcasts — for example, to remove
the requirement that advertising and teleshopping should not exceed
20% of daily output, while retaining the requirement that
it should not exceed 20% of hourly output; and, to give
another example, to replace the present requirement that films
may be interrupted by advertising or teleshopping only once in
every 45 minutes and news and children's programmes may be interrupted
once every 20 minutes by a new requirement that films, news and
children's programmes may be interrupted once in every 35 minutes.
6.8 The new Article 3 would make non-linear services
and linear services subject to the same minimum requirements about:
- access to short reports on
events of high interest to the public;
- the name and address of the service provider;
- the protection of minors;
- the prohibition of incitement to hatred;
- the promotion of work of European origin;
- the contents of advertising; and
- the sponsorship of audiovisual services (for
example, tobacco companies would not be able to sponsor a linear
or non-linear programme).
6.9 The proposed Directive would apply to audio visual
media services which provide moving images to the public over
the Internet; mobile networks; terrestrial, satellite and cable
networks; and any other electronic network. It would not apply
to sound-only services and electronic versions of newspapers and
magazines.
6.10 ADD 1 contains detailed information about the
proposal and assesses its impact and the impact of two other options.
ADD 2 contains statistics on, for example, the penetration of
digital television in Europe.
The Government's view
6.11 The Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism
at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (James Purnell)
tells us that in July 2005 the Commission invited comments on
papers about six key issues affecting the TVWF. The UK Presidency
joined the Commission in hosting a conference in September to
discuss the papers and the Government sent the Commission its
own comments on them in November. The Government has set up a
group which includes broadcasters, independent service providers,
mobile phone operators, software companies and non-governmental
organisations to discuss the Commission's proposals and other
TVWF questions.
6.12 The Government will now consult formally on
the draft Directive. The responses will be taken into account
in the preparation of the Government's Regulatory Impact Assessment
and Small Firms Impact Assessment of the measure.
6.13 The Minister says that:
"The UK Government has serious reservations
about important aspects of these proposals. The discussions which
we have had with industry have revealed serious concerns, especially
in the online, broadband and mobile sectors, that rules of the
kind proposed could dampen the growth of these vitally important
and rapidly developing areas.
"Especially given that these industries
are so easily portable between jurisdictions, this could prejudice
the ability of the EU as a whole to meet its i2010 targets and
the Lisbon Agenda. There is also a concern that the distinction
between linear and non-linear services in the Commission's proposal
could rapidly become redundant given the speed and dynamism with
which the new media industries are developing and deploying new
products with which to exploit the new technologies."
6.14 The Minister adds, however, that the Government
welcomes the proposals for simplifying the regulation of traditional
television broadcasting and believes this could go further.
Conclusion
6.15 We, too, welcome the Commission's proposals
for simplifying the Television without Frontiers Directive. We
understand the case for bringing the regulation of non-linear
services closer into line with that of linear services. We note
that the negotiations on the draft Directive are only just beginning.
We also note that the Government has serious reservations about
some aspects of the proposal.
6.16 For these reasons, we have decided to keep
the document under scrutiny pending further information from the
Minister about:
- the outcome of the Government's
consultations on the draft Directive;
- the substance of the Government's reservations;
and
- the progress of the negotiations.
6.17 Finally, we note that the TVWF Directive
was extensively amended by the 1997 Directive. The Commission
is now proposing yet more amendments. This would make it even
more difficult for the public, service providers, regulators and
Member States to understand the Community's legislation on audiovisual
media services. We hope, therefore, that the Minister will seek
to persuade the Council that it would be desirable to bring together
all the relevant EC legislation into one new Directive.
25 Council Directive 89/552/EEC (OJ No. L 298, 17.10.1989,
p.23) as amended by Directive 97/36/EC (OJ No. L 202, 30.7.1997,
p.60). Back
26
Directive 2000/31/EC: OJ No. L, 178, 17.7.2000, p.1. Back
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